Boosey & Hawkes (Hendon Music)
Canta la Piedra (Tetluikan) [translated in English as: The Stone Sings] is a piece inspired by a poem by the talented Nahuatl writer Mardonio Carballo. It was written to mark the opening of the new Michael C. Rockefeller Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, dedicated to the arts of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and North, Central, and South America.
The four elements—earth, water, air, and fire—carry profound and symbolic significance in Mesoamerican cultures, as they represent a deep connection to nature and the surrounding environment, reflecting the complexity of human existence. Each element is associated with different aspects of life, nature, and the worldview of these cultures. Earth is sacred and seen as the mother that nurtures and sustains life; water is a symbol of flow and renewal; air is associated with wind and the transmission of thought; and fire symbolizes transformation and power.
In Mardonio’s poem, each element is repeated like a sacred mantra, interwoven with images and symbols of our human condition and an ancestral wisdom that connects us to the origins of life. Its profound beauty served as the point of inspiration to create a unique musical structure, evoking sensations of rituals or dances centered around nature and the origins of the universe. The stone becomes a sacred object that unifies and sings, while the cadence of the words in Nahuatl and their specific repetitions shape rhythmic patterns and melodies that suggest the various sonic emotions implicit in the poem. My idea was to create multifaceted music where poetry, nature, sacred numerology, and ancestral art intertwine and enrich each other, creating diverse soundscapes.
—Gabriela Ortiz